Fatabase 2.0: Health Check logo doesn't always equal healthy

Extreme Pita is the latest restaurant to join the Health Check program, in April. “Providing transparent nutritional information has always been important to us,” explained company president Alex Rechichi, pictured. “We felt Health Check was a great opportunity to leverage our offering and gain some more public notoriety around the healthy offerings in our restaurants. People come to us because they want a healthy product.”

The explanation is much like a diet: getting to where you want to be takes time and commitment.

When it comes to providing consumers with some semblance of independent guidance on eating healthy in restaurants, Health Check — with B.C. government support — is the current standard in Canada.

But restaurants have been slow to sign on, leaving the foundation in a fragile position: adopting tough criteria could simply act as a deterrent to moving the program forward.

“It’s a very challenging area, a gradual process,” confirmed Carol Dombrow, the foundation’s registered dietitian in Ottawa. “You can’t go in and say everything has to be low-sodium. First of all, no one’s going to want to eat it. Second of all, they’ll never be able to meet it.”

Experts interviewed by The Vancouver Sun agree the criteria set by Health Check should be tougher.

“I have some criticisms,” said Vancouver registered dietitian Jessica Begg of Flourish Wellness and Nutrition. “I know they’re trying to get restaurants to buy into it, but they’re really not that strict.”

Begg noted that a customer adhering to Health Check could consume up to 360 grams of sodium in a side salad plus 720 grams in a small entrée — that’s up to 1,080 grams in a single meal. What about people who eat out twice a day?

“That’s quite a bit,” Begg said. “Are they really healthy? The criteria is kind of lax.”

Boston Pizza sells a Health Check-certified Szechuan pizza with 800 milligrams of sodium per 369-gram serving — which compares with 1,460 milligrams for a 354-gram serving of classic pepperoni and mushroom pizza.

Swiss Chalet gets the Health Check logo despite not counting the dipping sauce for its chicken or the dressing for the salad, Begg noted.

“There’s no way you’d say no to dressing and sauce. Then it doesn’t meet the criteria.”

She agrees with Begg’s concerns over sodium levels allowed under Health Check. In addition, she said trans fats levels should be zero and that allowing “43 grams of protein at one sitting is not necessary.” It is important, she said, to reformulate the criteria to keep pace with scientific nutritional research.

Humble beginnings

The foundation launched Health Check in 1999 for products sold in grocery stores, with the goal of setting nutritional criteria designed to be 25-per-cent healthier than in the general market, Dombrow said. The program works with the food manufacturers who distribute to the retail outlets.

Since then, 150 companies and more than 2,000 products have come on board, each providing a lab analysis for their relevant menu items showing they meet the nutritional criteria.

In 2005, the foundation launched its restaurant program, setting criteria in areas such as fat, sodium, protein and trans fats, but not carbohydrates or cholesterol. To date, only 15 restaurant companies have signed on to the program, including familiar chains such as Boston Pizza, White Spot, Wok Box and Swiss Chalet.

Red Robin was a member for three years, but recently dropped out. The company’s Canadian marketing manager, Michele Varley, said only the kids’ menu was Health Check certified and that the company plans to take another look at the program once they develop some adult menu items that fit the criteria.

“We still believe in the program,” she said. “It’s awesome.”

A ‘real challenge’

The average Canadian consumes an estimated 3,400 milligrams of sodium per day. The Sodium Working Group last year recommended to Health Canada a target of lowering consumption to 2,300 milligrams by 2016. The recommended daily intake level for sodium is 1,500 milligrams.

“It’s a real challenge for them to meet our criteria,” Dombrow said. “With sodium, you have to go down gradually. Do it slowly, and customers will acclimatize to it.”

Health Check announced changes in 2007 and 2008 to the nutrient criteria for the retail program, including reductions to sodium levels on a number of food groups by between 25 and 70 per cent, she said.

To meet the new criteria, companies reformulated existing products and developed new ones, removing even more sodium from the food supply. The changes came into effect in November 2010.

A study of 14 member companies showed they removed about 500,000 kilograms of salt — “the equivalent of 20 dump trucks” — from their products over four years, Dombrow said. “We continue to monitor this. We’ll push companies as hard as we can to reduce sodium.”

“Providing transparent nutritional information has always been important to us,” explained company president Alex Rechichi. “We felt Health Check was a great opportunity to leverage our offering and gain some more public notoriety around the healthy offerings in our restaurants. People come to us because they want a healthy product.”

He urged changes at all levels of the food chain to produce healthier food and to provide customers with nutritional information.

“The entire industry needs to revolutionize,” he said. “Young and old, people are really focused on the types of foods they eat. There’s a huge shift in the marketplace.”

A user-pay program

Restaurants are charged an annual fee to cover the cost of the Health Check program: $1,350 per menu item for a company with one to nine outlets; $2,675 per item for 10 to 35 outlets; $3,325 per item for 36 to 99 outlets; and $4,000 per item for 100 or more outlets.

He said the B.C. government contributes $125,000 annually to the program, covering the full cost of restaurants joining the first year and 50 per cent in the second year.

Each incremental change in criteria requires the participating restaurants to come into compliance.

In addition to independent lab nutrition tests to determine nutritional information for menu items, Heart Check does its own independent random tests to ensure continued compliance. To date, none have failed.

Dietitian Begg said her “cardiac rehab clients” do look for the Health Check sign.

“People who are watching their sodium and fat do pay attention to it. They know all about Health Check.”

Concluded Guest: “It’s become a bit of a business. There are benefits to the food companies, the restaurants, to have Health Check. They’re paying for it, but they’re also getting that money back to them by increased purchases of those items.

“It’s a lesser of two evils, but some of these Health Check options are not healthy options.”

Extreme Pita is the latest restaurant to join the Health Check program, in April. “Providing transparent nutritional information has always been important to us,” explained company president Alex Rechichi, pictured. “We felt Health Check was a great opportunity to leverage our offering and gain some more public notoriety around the healthy offerings in our restaurants. People come to us because they want a healthy product.”

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